A current surgical operating room typically involves three main personnel in a surgical procedure; the surgeon, the scrub nurse and the circulator nurse. The surgeon and scrub nurse are antiseptically sterile, the circulator nurse is not. A physical surgical apparatus is typically used that must be placed adjacent to the patient and away from the surgeon's control. In ophthalmic surgery, for example, the surgical apparatus may comprise a vitreoretinal system with posterior segment and anterior segment procedure capabilities. The surgical apparatus may include an ophthalmic microscope, a vitrectomy probe that provides high speed cutting, an illuminator, a touch panel screen having a GUI (Graphic User Interface), and an embedded laser that's controlled from a system screen on the monitor.
Currently, surgeons typically only look down the microscope into the patient's eye, and control of the surgical apparatus is done either by the surgeon using a footswitch or via verbal directions from the surgeon to a nurse who then manually interacts with the surgical apparatus using the GUI on the touch panel. All patient information (e.g., notes, images, etc.,) must be reviewed before surgery begins as it cannot be available to the surgeon in an antiseptic environment. Other types of surgery data coming from other systems or other products must be read to the surgeon or the surgeon has to take their eyes off the microscope to view the data. Consequently, the data sources used by the surgeon are separate and independent, and the flow of surgery is interrupted every time the doctor has to lift his or her head from the microscope.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved surgical system that enhances the surgical experience for the surgeon, particularly during an ophthalmic surgery.